NJ Born Michael Oren to be Appointed Israel’s Ambassador to US

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman met this weekend to agree on the appointment of Dr. Michael Oren to the post of Israel’s ambassador to the United States. He is expected to replace the current ambassador, Salai Meridor, in the coming weeks. The change will coincide with Netanyahu’s first state visit to Washington, scheduled for May 16th-19th, and Oren will likely accompany the prime minister in his meetings with the American leadership.Meridor asked to resign from him post following the elections and the change of leadership in Israel. Netanyahu and Lieberman agreed on Oren’s appointment this weekend, after Lieberman met with and approved Netanyahu’s candidate.

Oren has been Netanyahu’s candidate for the post since Meridor tendered his resignation. He holds dual American-Israeli citizenship and is considered well known and well connected in US political circles. He received Lieberman’s backing as well after a meeting between the two.

Oren is a senior fellow at the Yerushalayim-based Shalem Center, specializing in the political and military history of the Middle East.

Born in New Jersey in 1955, Oren immigrated to Israel in the 1970s. He is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University. He enlisted in the IDF and served as a paratrooper officer in the First Lebanon War. He also served as a liaison officer during the Gulf War and with the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit in the Second Lebanon war.

He has been part of and served as advisor to Israeli delegations to the United Nations, and to various diplomatic missions abroad. He is the author of the bestselling ‘Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East’ and ‘Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present.’